There was a heatwave that year

My gift to everyone over lockdown was to make each of my titles free for 4 days. 

I chose the order in which the books would appear by drawing straws - or the equivalent - out of a hat, and the 9th title is up as I write. If nothing else the exercise has shown me which genre is the most popular - and that is Regency romance. So far The Gybford Affair: the heiress and the fortune hunter is the clear winner but The Matfen Affair : the bridesmaid and the ghost is not far behind. 

I am keen for the end of the run, for then I will be able to look at the true statistics for all titles. I am rather surprised that the early medievals, Tudor tales and Viking stories lag behind in the popularity stakes, but they are as much romances as "histories." 

My current story is now at 50k and going fine. With a working title of Silver Season, which may or may not last the course, this one is not Regency, but Edwardian.  It is set in 1911 when the Titanic was undergoing sea trials and King George V and Queen Mary were crowned. The time period is very close to the opening season of Downton, but my story will take place within the one year. 

There was a heat wave that year, hints of coming war with Germany and a sense that the season may well be the last of its kind. My heroine is Ellen Montgomery, an American heiress born in Boston and married to Charles Byland, heir to the 5th Marquess of Durrington in the north of England. They have been happily married for three years, but with one flaw ~ there is no sign of a child and that impinges rather heavily on their happiness.

Going free

FREE today ~ The Matfen Affair

Doing my bit to ease the lockdown situation I'm making one of my titles free for a little while as from today. Others will follow in due course.

So why not hop over to

https://tinyurl.com/zvl7s2c (US)

https://tinyurl.com/z246enk (UK)

https://tinyurl.com/y5y9srgb (Au)

and grab a copy while you can?

My word, where to start? This novel is concerned with little more than marriage. It takes place over the space of a few days as a family is drawn together for a wedding. And little else is on the minds of the guests. But there is a ghost story that is seamlessly blended into the plot and adds a delightful frisson of mystery and danger. This is pure Austen. A family who want to marry off their youngsters, and that is pretty much the main theme of this novel yet as simplistic as that sounds, it does it perfectly. Even if the ghost story were taken out completely, this tale would still work perfectly. It would still be as readable, it would still flow as smoothly and with the same surprising pace.  This is an absolute gem of a novel, a delight, one of the best Regency Romances I have ever read. I could not put this down. I read it in a handful of hours and resented the time I had to leave it alone. As a classic Regency Romance, this is a must if you like the genre. I can't praise it highly enough. © Nicky Galliers

The Matfen Affair

 The Matfen Affair is now published on Amazon Kindle and I wish it God speed. February 16th was my dad's birthday, so hopefully that publication date will bring me luck as I announce my new book!

 This one was fun to write. Leigh Fenwick lives in Northumberland, far away from Lady Jersey and her London Society cronies, but a wedding is still a big day in any girl's life. Visiting Matfen Grange as bridesmaid to her cousin Lucy, Leigh is sidetracked by a wayward ghost, the bridegroom is injured on his journey from Cumberland and the bride returns home after only one day of marriage. Cousin Bertram decides Leigh is exactly the girl for him, but Leigh is focused on someone else....

There is a Matfen Hall  close by the village of Matfen in the Tyne Valley in Northumberland, but as far as I know, the hall has no family or history such as I have described within these pages.

The Matfen Affair

Some people claim to write without planning their books so when I recently began a new book, tentatively called the Matfen Affair, I had only a loose plan for it but didn't think it would be too difficult to work out as I went along. 

Hah! I have been obliged to change the ages of characters and their parentage several times already and I'm only 40,000 words into the story. The smallest thing can become a problem. An example would be that because I couldn't recall if cousins could marry in 1803, which is when the book is set. I had, in the first line of the book, my heroine address the hero as Cousin Robert. Then I decided I didn't want cousins to marry even if it was legal and the church allowed it.

To be on the safe side I decided the relationship would be within the same family but so far back that they are not first cousins, or even second cousins. That led on to a change of surname and working out a sensible family tree. It also made a great-aunt out of a grandmother. 

I am now regretting not planning more carefully before I started! My only excuse is that I was so keen to start writing the actual story.....

I want to have this published on Kindle before Christmas. Will I make it? I think so. The cover is already done. I went out one sunny afternoon and took a picture of the building I wanted as my "Matfen" but I may fiddle about with the heroine's hairstyle before I upload the cover pic here.  On the whole the story is coming along very well. Even if my ghost has suddenly turned vengeful rather than pathetic.